iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders have not opened yet. They open at 5 a.m. PT on Saturday, September 12, and until then Apple’s store page is in preparation mode, which means the useful work this week is deciding how you pay rather than how fast you tap.
Four things are settled at that checkout and cannot be improved by shopping around afterwards: the payment route, the storefront you buy from, whether a carrier is attached at the moment of purchase, and where your old iPhone goes. Everything else about the $1,199 iPhone 18 Pro can wait.
| Key fact | What Apple has published |
|---|---|
| Pre-orders open | 5 a.m. PT, Saturday, September 12, 2026 |
| On sale | Friday, September 18, with 20 more countries on September 25 |
| US prices | $1,199 for iPhone 18 Pro, $1,299 for iPhone 18 Pro Max, both 256GB |
| Apple instalments | $49.95 a month for the Pro and $54.12 for the Pro Max, 24 months at 0 percent APR |
| Apple Upgrade lease | $34.99 a month over 24 months, or $49.99 over 12, for the 256GB Pro |
| Apple Trade In | $175 to $885 for an iPhone 13 or later, credited instantly |
| Carrier credit | Up to $1,200, as bill credits over 24 to 36 months |
What Apple’s store lets you do right now
The store page reads, in Apple’s own words: “Get ready for iPhone 18 Pro pre-order. Choose your new iPhone today, then speed through checkout when pre-order starts at 5:00 a.m. PT on 9.12.”
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It also means nothing has been sold, so there are no sell-outs and no shipping slips to read this week.
The payment route is a checkout decision
Apple Card Monthly Installments run 24 months at 0 percent APR, at $49.95 a month for the Pro and $54.12 for the Pro Max, and they carry a condition worth reading before Saturday. Apple’s wording is that to buy an iPhone with the plan you must select AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon, and prepaid plans are not supported. Apple Card also pays 3 percent Daily Cash on purchases at Apple, which is $35.97 on a $1,199 phone, paid up front.
The alternative is Apple Upgrade, the lease that replaced the iPhone Upgrade Program in July 2026 and is provided by Klarna. It is cheaper per month and it is not ownership.
| Route | Monthly, 256GB iPhone 18 Pro | What you end up with | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay in full | None, $1,199 once | The phone | Largest sum up front |
| Apple Card instalments | $49.95 for 24 months | The phone, $1,198.80 total | Requires a postpaid AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon plan |
| Apple Upgrade lease | $34.99 for 24 months | A leased phone to upgrade, buy out or return | AppleCare is not included, and the buyout price is not published |
| Apple Upgrade, 12 months | $49.99 for 12 months | Same, shorter term | US residents only, returned in good condition |
Apple’s lease figures exclude taxes and any trade-in credit, and if you do nothing at the end of the term Apple says the lease converts to a month-to-month arrangement for up to six months.
Trade in with Apple or with a carrier, and watch when the money lands
Apple’s published range is $175 to $885 in credit for an iPhone 13 or later, and the word that matters is instant: the credit comes off the purchase on the day. Apple does not publish a per-model table. The values recorded for individual models put an iPhone 16 Pro at $510 and an iPhone 15 Pro at $370, and every iPhone payout fell on September 9, some by as much as $120.
A carrier pays more on paper and later in practice. Apple’s summary is up to $1,200 in credits for an iPhone 14 or later in any condition, and Apple’s footnotes break AT&T into $350, $930 or $1,200 depending on the trade-in and the plan tier, spread across 36 months of bill credits. That is a discount you earn by staying.
The discounts that do not exist this weekend
- There is no student price on iPhone. Apple’s Education Store lists iPhone 18 Pro at the same $1,199 to $2,399.
- There is no connectivity discount on any new model. Apple names the $30 discount only on iPhone 17 and iPhone 16, and only for customers who connect with a carrier at the time of purchase.
- There is no refurbished iPhone 17 generation. On September 10 the newest Certified Refurbished listing was an iPhone 16 512GB at $909, and Apple publishes no schedule for newer stock.
- There are no carrier terms to compare. Verizon’s iPhone 18 Pro page carries a 9/12 pre-order time and nothing else, and AT&T’s deals page still leads with iPhone 17 Pro Max.
- There is no retailer launch offer on iPhone. Best Buy, Walmart, Costco and Target have published none.
The veterans storefront is an either-or
Apple’s Veterans and Military Purchase Program takes 10 percent off, which is $119.90 on a $1,199 iPhone 18 Pro, and covers immediate family members in the same household, with verification through ID.me. The catch is in the same terms: Apple Card Monthly Installments are not available in that storefront, and neither is the Apple Upgrade lease.
So a veteran picks one. Ten percent off wins if you were going to pay outright anyway, and loses if you needed to spread the cost.
What has not been confirmed
No US carrier has published its own iPhone 18 Pro terms, so the tier figures above exist only in Apple’s footnotes. T-Mobile’s site could not be checked, so treat anything attributed to it as unconfirmed. Apple has also not published an AppleCare+ price for iPhone 18 Pro, which leaves AppleCare One at $19.99 a month for up to three devices as the only priced coverage.
Pre-orders open at 5 a.m. PT on Saturday, September 12, with deliveries and store availability from Friday, September 18. If you are still choosing between sizes, our 6.3-inch against 6.9-inch comparison and the full price breakdown cover the $100 fork, and the event recap covers everything else Apple announced on September 9.
